


Golden Years

by Norangutan



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-20
Updated: 2013-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-05 06:29:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1090707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Norangutan/pseuds/Norangutan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Newt finds out about Hermann's impending engagement, which is a surprise, because at least if they were unhappy together, they'd still be together. Right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Golden Years

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SkysongMA](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkysongMA/gifts).



Newton was about to smuggle a vial of Atticon's Blue out of the lab when he noticed his colleague's computer screen. He almost dropped the tube in surprise. "Is that… Is that jewelry you're looking at?"

Dr. Gottlieb slammed his fingers down in the vicinity of the power button. His display flickered, but stayed up. It took another attempt to turn it off correctly, but by then the damage was done. "Your shift ended nearly twenty minutes ago. Why are you still here?" he asked irritably.

"My shift? We're the only two scientists in the whole Shatterdome—Nobody cares if we follow the schedule," Newt scoffed. "C'mon, dude. Why're you browsing the bling?"

Hermann's hand trembled as he reached for his cane, but he managed to shoot Newton a withering glance to mask any other signs of worry. "It's… It's nothing. Just a passing curiosity. A fleeting interest."

Newt sighed. "You've been at your computer for hours, man. If this wasn't important, you'd still be scratching equations up and down that chalkboard. Or nagging me about when the night shift begins, because that's totally something we have to worry about. It's not like Pentecost could pay us overtime, even if he wanted to."

"You might think you're above everyone else here, Newton, but the rules still apply to you. Especially rules that were made for the specific purpose of keeping you out of other people's way," Gottlieb sniffed as he stood up. "And you shouldn't speculate on things you don't know, including the Marshall's budgetary concerns. It isn't…"

"Isn't… Isn't what? Dignified? Polite? Kosher?" Newt fired back. He paused, waiting until he knew Gottlieb was too far away to stop him before vaulting forward and turning the display back on. He took another look at the collection of diamonds and precious metals before him and called mockingly, "I knew it! Who's the lucky lady?"

"Get—Newton—How dare you!" Gottlieb spluttered. "Stop fooling around on my machine! How many times have I told you not to meddle with my equipment?"

Newt scrolled down through the twenty or so drafts that had been saved to the private profile Dr. Gottlieb had created. "Hey, that one's alright. Look at—"

"Get off," Gottlieb snapped, pushing Newt away from his desk. "This is my private console."

Newt frowned at Hermann as he stepped back. "That still doesn't explain why you're looking at rings. What, is your brother getting married or something?"

"Would you please shut up? It's not for… my brother." Gottlieb shook his head and turned the computer screen back off.

Newt filled in the blanks based on the level of Hermann's agitation. "You have a girlfriend? You're gonna marry her? When did you get the time for that? You've been here since April. With me!"

Gottlieb eyed Newton dubiously. "We haven't been together twenty-four hours a day—thank god," he added.

"So, what, did you smuggle her in under that giant, oversized winter coat of yours? Come on, Hermann, I would have noticed. You haven't left the dome in weeks. Not for fun."

"We vidchat," Gottlieb muttered.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

"We have a private channel, all right? Marshall Pentecost gave it the go-ahead himself. We talk every night. It's none of your business."

"None of my business?" Newt squawked. "This is all of my business. I have to put up with you every day of my life! Why didn't you tell me? I had no idea you had—that you were so serious about... Engagement rings? I don't even know her name!"

"Well, I could hardly discuss it with you," Gottlieb huffed under his breath.

"What did you say?" Newt asked.

"Nothing, nothing… I haven't even told my family about it. Yet," he added, steeling himself to the idea.

Newt opened his mouth to say that Hermann clearly spent more time with this phantom fiancée than with his actual family, but he knew he'd never get anything more out of his lab partner after a comment like that. "So… What's the problem? Just pick one already. Just because you want to get married to—What's her name again? I'm assuming it's a her. You know, not to be rude or anything."

Gottlieb mumbled something.

"What?" Newt ducked his head down involuntarily.

"Vanessa. Her name is Vanessa."

Newt waited for more. After a long pause that began to make him uncomfortable, he exploded, "So? What's her last name? What's she like? When did you meet her? Where? How long have you been together? Come on, dude! You gotta tell someone."

Gottlieb stared at the ground, shaking his cane back and forth as though it were an inverted pendulum counting down arguments instead of seconds as they flashed through his head. Newt was about to tell him to forget it when he finally sat down with a sigh and said, "She's a model. In Britain. We met at a restaurant when she tried to get me to order the jalfrezi and I refused. You know what it does to my—"

"Yeah, I know. Are you seriously going to bring that up in the story of how you met the Love of Your Life?"

Gottlieb glared at him. "Before I knew it, she was telling me about her first trip to Pakistan and I had ordered the chicken tikka masala."

Newt's eyebrows rose several inches. Personally, he considered masala to be about as exciting as meatloaf, but for Hermann it was the equivalent of munching on habaneros. "But—you always find the blandest thing on the menu. How in the world…?"

"I don't know," said Gottlieb, shaking his head. "But I enjoyed it. She was the best company I'd had in weeks."

"What did she do when she found out you were a math genius?" Newt was aware that this had always been the conversation stopper his partner had dreaded since childhood, but shot the question out anyway. A few years ago, before they'd met each other face-to-face, he and Dr. Gottlieb had started up a correspondence that had begun with a mutual respect for the other's work in the academic community, and had deepened into something much greater. Eventually they had shared some truly personal secrets with each other, which at the time had been a relief for both of them but now was a source of constant embarrassment and regret. Newt had trouble figuring out what he hated more—that he had once cared so much about a man who was so insufferable and controlling as to learn some of his worst fears, or that the same man knew so much about him.

"She asked me about what I was doing. Whatever wasn't classified, obviously. I told her a little of my work concerning the Breach, and that I couldn't figure out how it could sustain a stable connection with our world—no matter what I did, I couldn't account for all the energy the Breach gave off during an event. The only conclusion I could find was that the energy must have come from Earth itself, but I couldn't find the source."

Newt nodded slowly. "You, uh… You mentioned that problem in some of your letters."

"Did I?" Gottlieb asked. "I suppose, well… Yes. Yes, that must have been around that time…"

"Before or after?" Newt said quietly.

"After. But only just. I thought it was only a chance meeting—ships in the night, that sort of thing. You know." Gottlieb stared at his knees for a moment, then cleared his throat and stamped his cane once or twice. "Well, she found me again soon after. Said she couldn't stop thinking about where the extra energy could come from and posited the theory that it was kinetic, not thermal as I'd been focusing on before."

"That's right, it comes from tectonic plates—That was her idea?" Newt leaned against a nearby table, stretching his legs. It was a testament to how calm the thought of Vanessa made Hermann that he allowed Newt to sit on one of his pristine desks.

"It was the breakthrough I needed. I'd been finding dead ends everywhere else for so lo—" Gottlieb was so distracted by Newt's defensive posture that he hadn't been thinking of what he was saying. He stopped short when Newt pushed off the desk and stood up straight. "Newt, I am terribly sorry—I didn't mean—"

"Yeah, fine. So she helped. And you got to know her better. The rest is history," Newt said. "I guess the only step left is to marry her. Congratulations." He picked up a few samples and dropped them arbitrarily on separate trays, even though in the eight and a half months he'd been using the lab in the Hong Kong Shatterdome he'd never so much as cleaned his keyboard.

"Newton," Gottlieb sighed. "It was three years ago. I didn't think—I certainly didn't expect—"

"She must have just swept you off your feet," said Newt. "A model who's also an expert in geophysics. No wonder you kept her a secret."

"I didn't keep her a secret," protested Gottlieb. "I just… Besides, you didn't ask."

"Ask?" Newt's voice squeaked. "I didn't even know she existed before three minutes ago!"

Gottlieb opened his mouth, then turned back to his computer. "I didn't plan for this to happen," he muttered.

"Oh, good for you. The one thing you don't control and it turns out perfectly."

Gottlieb frowned and tuned Newton out. Newt left to get some food.

* * *

 

**A Few Days Later…**

"Wow, man. Are you still hung up on that ring thing? It's six in the morning."

"Go away, Newton."

"Doesn't look like you've made any progress finding one. Did you even sleep?"

Gottlieb sighed. "If I could just have five minutes of peace and quiet? Is that too much to expect from my own laboratory?"

"Hey, dude, it's my lab, too. I'm just trying to help."

"By constantly distracting and irritating me?" he snapped. "There's a perfectly good bay you can jump into right outside. Don't let me stop you."

Newt rolled his eyes and walked to his station, whistling "Moon River."

It took Gottlieb a full verse and a half before he realized what he was listening to. "Newton, I swear on every Kaiju that has passed through your hands that I will wring your neck and mail your body to the Skull Temple."

Newt paused. "Have you asked what she wants in a ring?" he said finally.

Gottlieb took a while to judge whether Newt was being sincere. "Yes. She said she likes brilliant cut and she doesn't want a colored stone. 'Diamonds or glass, just so long as it's clear,' she said."

"That sounds pretty reasonable," said Newt.

"But that still leaves how many diamonds, their placement, and what kind of metal I should use for the band!" Gottlieb wailed.

"Well," said Newt, flopping into a chair, "Metal's easy. Silver is good—it's classic, it's associated with purity and—"

"I'd rather not use silver. It's always seen as 'second best.' And it tarnishes," said Gottlieb tiredly.

"Gold doesn't tarnish. Everyone's always seen it as the best—the Golden Ratio, the Golden Rule, the golden mean… In alchemy it represents mankind's drive to achieve perfection in mind and soul."

Gottlieb turned to him slowly. "What do I care about alchemy? I am a mathematician, not a conjurer from the sixteenth century!"

"Newton was an alchemist—"

"And your namesake. That's two strikes against him. I suppose that leaves platinum. But all the platinum's being used in medicine and Jaegers and the like. There's barely any left on the market for jewelry."

Newt cocked his head. "There's rose gold. A copper and gold alloy."

Gottlieb considered it. "It can be a very deep hue. It would make a nice contrast against the diamond."

Sighing, Newt said, "So is that a yes for the rose gold?"

He nodded. "Yes. Yes to the rose gold. And I've got an idea for the diamonds now, too."

Newt smiled, trying not to let the alchemic meaning for copper escape his lips. "And what's that."

"It's your idea, actually," Gottlieb said. "The Golden Ratio."

"What, like, Fibonacci?" asked Newt. "For… how big the stones are and how you should order them. Perfect."

Gottlieb opened his notebook and started sketching. Newt went back to work on his liver samples, humming "Breakfast at Tiffany's" under his breath. After a few minutes, Hermann threw his papers down, his pen clattering to the floor. "I give up. How is it so hard to put an idea on paper?"

Newt crossed the room and picked up Gottlieb's notebook. Taking a pen from Gottlieb's jar (which he grumbled at, of course), he flipped through the pages and looked at Gottlieb's attempts, nodding slightly. Then, with a frown and a crooked neck, he drafted an interpretation of the previous pages and handed it back to Gottlieb. Hermann stared at them, surprised.

"This is… this is exactly what I wanted."

Newt nodded and headed back to his side of the lab. "I know," he said.


End file.
